Memory

1. M O D U L E 7 L E SSO N 1:
M E M O R YEncoding Storage Retrieval
• integrating
information into
the memory
system
• preserving
encoded material
in memory
• accessing memory
from storage
You meet a hot lady and
learn her name.
You say her name over
and over in your head to
memorize it.
You have to recall her
name when you want to
Snapchat her.

2. C om puters D o T his Sam e
Process!
Encoding Storage Retrieval
You type into a
computer.
You hit “save” to
preserve your document.
You can “open” your file
at a later date.
We are going to
focus on these
two elements of
memory today.

3. M ethods of
E ncodingVisual
– The encoding
of images
Acoustic
– The encoding
of sound
Semantic
– The encoding
of meaning
Of the three, semantic
encoding retains the
most information,
combining encoding
methods works even
better, and attaching
personal meaning is best. Self-Reference Effect: we remember more
if the information is related to ourselves

4. I n the next sentence, count the
num ber of “F ”s that appear
• There are 6 “F”s. If you counted less, you
were encoding acoustically (“fs” sound like
“v” in the “of” words).
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULTS OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EX-
PERIENCE OF YEARS.

5. Processing M em ory
• Hippocampus – develops
explicit memory for
storage (does not store it!)
• Study of London cab
drivers showed they had
larger than usual
hippocampi

6. Processing M em ory
Effortful Processing
– Encoding that requires
focus and concentration
• EXAMPLES: learning new
psychology material, first
learning to read or ride a
bike, learning a name
Automatic Processing
– Encoding that does not
require immediate
attention
• EXAMPLES: where you ate
yesterday, reading a book or
riding a bike at age 25, what
clothes you slept in last night

7. Aids for Encoding
• Rehearsal: repeating
information continually
• Mnemonics: memory
supports helpful to organize
information
– In 1492 Columbus
sailed...
– Please Excuse My Dear
Aunt Sally
– Freddy Krueger song
– 50 states song
– Mary Very Easily Makes
Jam Saturday Unless No
Plums

8. Aids for Encoding
1 4 9 2 1 7 7 6 1 8 1 2 1 9 4 1
• Chunking: clumping information into
more manageable units
Try to remember the
following sixteen digit
number, in order...

9. Aids for Encoding
• Spacing Effect:
information is better
retained when learned
over a period of time
rather than all at once

10. Eggs Butter Milk Grapes Cereal
Cheese Wine Chicken Sugar
Onions Cabbage Coffee Limes
Alfredo Pineapple Apples Noodles
Lettuce Sausage Waffles Ketchup
Listen to the grocery list
below. After all items have
been stated, you will write
down as many as you can
remember.
Aids for Encoding

11. • Serial Position Effect:
we better remember the
beginning (Primacy Effect)
and end (Recency Effect) of
lists
Aids for Encoding
• First items: Eggs, butter, milk, grapes,
cereal, cheese, wine
• Middle items: Chicken, sugar, onions,
cabbage, coffee, limes, alfredo
• Last items: Pineapple, apples, noodles,
lettuce, sausage, waffles, ketchup
• Real Life Implications? Job Interviews!
– First person interviewed gets hired 18%
of the time. Last person interviewed
gets hired 56% of the time.

12. Storage
preserving encoded material in
memory

13. Short-Term Memory
• (also called Working Memory)
• functioning memory that holds information
temporarily until it is stored or forgotten
– Lasts about 20 seconds
– Can contain 7±2 items
• Where in life do you see numbers 5-9 digits long?
– Information we deem important is then transferred into
our long-term memory

14. L ong-T erm M em ory
• The enduring and limitless repository of the
memory system
– In 2006, Japan’s Akira Haraguchi recited the first 100,000
digits of pi
– Sleep plays a key function in the
consolidation of memories
– The Clark’s Nutcracker can locate
up to 6000 caches of pine seeds it
had previously buried during winter
and early spring
– Even if you claim you used to know
something and “forgot” it, you probably
didn’t; you just have trouble accessing
the memory

15. Types of Memories
Explicit Memories
• Memory of facts (declarative
memories) and experiences
(episodic memories) that one
can deliberately identify and
state
– Stating how old you are
– Hippocampus plays a role in
forming explicit memory
Implicit Memories (aka
Procedural memories):
• Retention without cognizant
recall (such as skills)
– Clive Wearing still knowing
how to play piano
– Cerebellum plays a role in
forming implicit memory

16. Flashbulb
Memories• an emotionally
significant memory
– It’s as if our brain
commands, “Capture
this!”
– Hormones released
during emotional
moments enhance the
memory creation
Most common types:
Injury/accident (18%),
sports (11%),
opposite sex (10%),
animals (9%),
deaths (5%),
vacations (5%)

17. CITATIONS
• All images from this presentation from
OpenClipArt. Author: C. Hwozdek.
Retrieved March 27, 2017.
Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Public Domain Li